Our View: Rockford Promise can lead region's transformation

Saturday

Jan 18, 2014 at 5:30 PM

If you're a student who knows that you need to have some kind of post-secondary education to get a job that pays well, but you also know that you don't have the money to go to college or a trade school, what do you do?

Many students in that situation give up. If they stay in school, they don't hit the books as hard as they should. When they graduate - if they graduate - their options are limited.

The job market is changing. No longer can you graduate from high school one day and start earning a decent paycheck at a factory the next. Eight of every 10 jobs require more than a high school diploma.

The challenge - especially in Rockford - is to find ways to motivate students and show them that college is attainable.

That's why Rockford Promise, the initiative that aims to offer a free college education to any child who graduates from the public schools, is so important.

As Transform Rockford moves along in the process of making this city a more desirable place to live, Rockford Promise can be one of the solutions.

Thousands of people demonstrated that they want to be involved in making Rockford a better community when they showed up at two public meetings late last year. The process continued last week with two "community visioning" sessions. There will be more of those sessions this month.

It's no surprise that the "visioning" attendees voted to focus on economic development (jobs), education, community safety, diversity, and health and infrastructure.

Those areas are intertwined and define a good community. A well-educated community is a healthier, wealthier and safer community.

A typical adult with only a bachelor's degree will earn $1.42 million over a 40-year career, or $650,000 more than a typical individual who has only a high school diploma, according to an analysis of census data by the Pew Research Center Those college-educated adults create demand for goods and services - they create jobs, in other words. And a community with a well-educated workforce is more attractive to businesses, another job creator.

About 20 percent of Rockford-area adults have a bachelor's degree or more. The national average is 27.5 percent and the Illinois average is 29.5 percent. We have a long way to go to be just average.

Madison, Wis., which usually makes it toward the top of the best cities lists, has an unemployment rate about half the national average and its median family income is $20,000 higher than Rockford's.

Nearly half - 48.2 percent - of Madison residents 25 years and older have college degrees. Madison is home to a Big Ten university, so it has a huge advantage, but the numbers show what having a few more smart people in town will do.

We can't get more college-educated people until we improve our high school graduation rates. Only 64 percent of Rockford students graduated within four years. The state average is 83 percent.

However, Rockford's top students are outstanding. Sixty-one percent of those who graduate go to college. A further challenge is getting those students to return home and work here. The more that go to college, the more likely some of those will come home.

Rockford Promise has been around since 2007 but hasn't gained the support that the program it was modeled after - the Kalamazoo Promise - has. In Kalamazoo, anonymous donors have paid the bills.

The Kalamazoo Promise started in 2005 and has produced remarkable results for the schools and the city. Students are doing better in class, and the district has seen enrollment grow 24 percent since the program started. That means more people want to move to Kalamazoo, which creates demand for housing and higher property values.

That can happen here, too. We need to commit to the program and find the money necessary - $5.6 million, according to a study by the Upjohn Institute. That's seems a small price to pay for transforming a community.